About 5 to 15% of adults from industrialized countries suffer from chronic obstructive bronchopneumopathy, termed “COBP”.
The World Health Organization estimates that COBP is currently the fifth greatest cause of mortality in the world, and that by 2020, it will be the third greatest cause of mortality.
Oxygen-therapy is an effective treatment for patients suffering from respiratory insufficiencies, in particular COBP. Treatment, if it is properly followed, can lead to a sharp improvement in the patient's quality of life and reduce the number of exacerbations of the disease and therefore of hospitalizations.
However, the effects of oxygen-therapy are negligible, or indeed zero, if the patient does not observe his treatment, for example if the intake of oxygen occurs for a duration of less than 15 hours per day. Thus, in the study of these diseases and the care associated therewith, it is therefore essential to ascertain patients' observance, that is to say to measure the actual time during which they follow their treatment.
Numerous studies aimed at quantifying the impact of such and such a patient education program, at more precisely measuring the influence of oxygen-therapy on the duration and the quality of life of patients, or else at evaluating the medico-economic viability of home care, make it necessary to ascertain patients' observance.
Today, the data used for these studies are quite often qualitative data, arising directly from the gathering of information from patients, in the form of investigations or surveys, or in the best cases, of estimations of patients' oxygen consumption based on the number of cylinders consumed, the volume of liquid oxygen invoiced, the number of hours for which the oxygen concentrator is operating, etc.
It is therefore never actual data relating to the duration of treatment, to the patient's respiratory frequency and, consequently, to their state of health in general.
Moreover, the document U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,801 describes a device used to provide oxygen-enriched air, concentrated or compressed, to a patient via a diffuser. It comprises a detection and communication system having to be used in a periodic manner to verify the performance of the device and whether the oxygen provided to the patient corresponds to what was prescribed, that is to say whether the flow rate and the concentration of oxygen are in accordance with the doctor's instructions. However, this device does not make it possible to detect the presence of the patient and to recover information regarding his state of health.
Furthermore, the document US-A-2007/0023039 teaches an apparatus which makes it possible to enrich the patient's environment with oxygen, to detect the patient's respiration but not his respiratory frequency, and to verify whether he is observing his treatment. It comprises, between the oxygen source and the cannula, an ultrasound sensor which measures the speed of propagation of the sound waves and the flow rate of oxygen entering the cannula and, moreover, a component making it possible to synchronize or regulate the oxygen demand at the time of respiration. A frequency shift due to respiration is used to detect the patient's respiration (frequencies calculated on the basis of sound waves). However, at no time is the respiratory frequency measured.
Moreover, these systems exhibit the drawbacks of not being able to achieve the desired autonomy and of being voluminous.
There therefore exists a requirement for a device capable of alleviating these various drawbacks while making it possible to detect whether the patient is indeed following his prescribed treatment, of recording these data, of transmitting them locally and remotely so as to be able to alert the patient or the care center to which he is attached should the treatment not be followed, of being adaptable to any type of oxygen source, and of exhibiting very significant autonomy of at least one year.